Most children on the autistic spectrum also have something called Sensory Processing Disorder. If you read my post So, you think my son is a brat… you know that Jake has had his own share of sensory processing disorder. Often times you’ll see autistic kids flapping their arms, rocking back and forth, or banging their heads. This is called self-stimulatory behavior or “stimming” and it can come in any form and involve any of the senses.  My son stims by clenching his hands up to his mouth. He did it as a toddler and he still does it today if he’s really excited.

Autistic kids stim as a way to self-regulate sensory input. Some people see it as a negative and try to redirect the child, and other people see it as a way for the child to calm down and they don’t do anything about it. With my son, we tell him to clasp his hands in his lap and he’ll do that while clenching his teeth. It’s a little more appropriate for social situations than what he was doing before.

Sensory processing disorder really varies from child to child, and kids who are not on the spectrum can also be affected by it. Some examples are:

• becomes anxious when touched
• doesn’t like hair being brushed
• can’t stand touching certain textures of material
• doesn’t like the feel of mud, sand, grass, play-doh OR excessively seeks out these textures
• may not show pain when hurt
• loves vibrations
• fearful of the sound of vacuums and hairdryers

There’s a great big list here. From the information on that list, my son has hyposensitivity to movement, sensory seeking behaviors, hypersensitivity to visual input, auditory-language processing dysfunction, and emotional dysfunction.

While that may seem like a lot, he has actually overcame a lot of other stuff on that list. For example, when he was younger he would cover his ears and run into the other room when I had the hair dryer on. Now he allows me to dry his hair with no problems.

Occupational therapy and Applied Behavior Analysis can help with sensory integration. There’s also a lot of fun activities to do a home with your child that will help as well. Jake always enjoys the sensory part of his therapy. There’s a nice compiled list here.

Some information in this post was found at Sensory-Processing-Disorder.com and SPDfoundation

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